Arcia
by THGfan12
Summary: The youngest Victor that has suffered just as much as all the others. Known to be pure and especially insane, Arcia May, Victor of the 68th Hunger Games. This is her story. (Mature Themes, Language, Character Death)
1. Chapter 1

The little girl blinked at the heavy sunlight as her elder brother lifted her up off the ground where she sat. Placing her onto his own lap. Leaning back onto him she frowned, the heat during this time of year was nearly unbearable. And in about an hour, it would be her first reaping. Her first of a handful more. Fear welled up in her chest at the very thought of the games. She'd never been able to watch them, but she knew that people really hurt each other during the games.

She held back the urge to cry and her brother wrapped his arms around her. "You'll be okay Cia, they're never gonna' pick you. Even if you begged for it." She giggled and looked down to his left hand. The one that held his ring. She was happy for her brother and his recent marriage, but she'd been feeling lonlier and lonlier as time passed by. They still lived in the same house hold and ate dinner together. But, it just wasn't the same.

But, she stayed happy. Now, that her brother finally had someone to love in that way and take care of. It made her a lot happier than she could even comprehend. "I know, I'm just scared." He stroked her head and sighed. Before he took her hair and began to section it off, preparing to braid her waist length sandy hair.

"That's normal Cia, I was really scared my first time too. You were probably too young to remember, but on my first reaping. You came up to me and gave me this..." he was sure to hold a good grip on her hair before showing her his wrist. A thin peice of leather was in his palm.

She blinked and brought her eyebrows together. "Why would I do that?" he chuckled and continued with her hair.

Hearing his laughter always made her smile, "You said, 'It's good luck brother!' It was bigger on me back then. With my skinny little boy wrists. Now, it's too small. But, I still keep it. Mother had helped you tie it onto my wrist. So, I kept it and now I know that it's good luck." she giggled.

There were times like these. That she couldn't even remember most of the time, but he seemed to bring her back to that day. She imagined herself when she was younger. A very small four year old girl with big bright eyes. Just as curios as she is today, about absolutley everything in the world. A grin on her face as she presented her gift to her scrawny elder brother. It was so easy to imagine.

"Now, I don't know why. But, you always followed me around like the little runt you are. You still do it you know. Every single day. So, I'm going to tie your hair with this little treasure and I know for a fact that you'll come straight back to me, I swear it." He kissed the top of her head and secured her hair with the leather as tight as he could.

...

Later, Zia and his wife Marsh were holding hands and walking down the street. She was perched on her brother's wide shoulders. A smile on her face as she played with his thick hair. There was no worry in her mind, she believed that the leather would give her the luck it gave Zia all of those years ago. She believed it with all of her heart.

Her elder brother knew everything. So, she just smiled without a single worry in the world. He carefully let her down onto the ground and pressed a kiss to her forehead, Marsh did the same to her cheek and gave her a wide grin. Showing her beautiful white teeth.

"Okay runt, you go over to the kids. I'll come and get you as soon as this is over." he tugged her long braid before playfully shoving her away. She giggled and turned around and walked to her group of kids.

Even though she didn't know the two girls on her left and right, she gripped their hands tightly and gave them smiles. Her fate was promised, she knew she would make it out of here and go have a feast with her brother and sister-in-law. It would be like the reaping never happened.

She felt them grip her hands with equal strength.

...

Before long, the speech of why The Hunger Games was made and how great of an honor it would be to be chosen. Yarosa Lockman clapped his hands cheerfully. His sequined gloves making sunlight burn straight into her eyeballs.

Not once did she move her hands from the girls beside her to rub her eyes, she just blinked the sunlight from her vision and tried to watch closely as he strode over to the girl's bowl.

His smile was nearly as bright as his gloves as he plucked the name from the bowl and walked over to the microphone. Both girls' grips tightened and took deep breaths. Arcia adn't realized she'd been holding hers until a sudden gust of wind blew into her nostrils. She didn't cough like her throat begged her to. She just bit her lower lip and watched Yarosa use his long fingernails to cut the tape that held the paper into it's folding position.

She didn't believe she had heard correctly when he said the name. She squinted and tried to remember what he'd said. Even though it had rung out on the mic so clearly, she didn't understand.

But, when he said it again, she knew.

"Arcia May? Where are you?"

She swallowed thickly and released the girls' hands and shuffled through the others. They just stared at her, with either shock, pity, or just a blank expression. Her hands burned and she couldn't move her feet when she reahed the end of the line of girls. It was impossible to take the next step.

Her brother had promised, Zia had promised her that she wouldn't get picked. He'd said she would have good luck. He said it was impossible for her to get picked.

Two peacekeepers ended up walking over to her and picking her up off of the ground, she let them. She just felt numb, like she couldn't breathe. Quicker than she hoped, she stood on the stage and Yarosa was holding her hand and pulling her to stand beside him. She stumbled a bit, and if it weren't for the circumstances. Zia would be laughing at her clumsyness.

"Our female tribute everyone!"

Yarosa giggled and said it was time to pick the boys before walking over to the bowl and picking it out. She hadn't even heard what he'd said, nor did she care. She just searched for Zia, and she saw him in the way back. Marsh was laying her head onto his chest, shoulders shaking. Obviously sobbing. While Zia just let silent tears roll down his face.

...

Now, she sat in the fancy room. Alone with her thoughts.

Zia had promised she wouldn't get picked. He'd promised. He lied to her, that wasn't fair. It wasn't right, why did she have to get picked? Why did it have to be this year? Why should she have to go into the arena and die? There was no way she would last long in there. She would probably fall off of her pedestal and be shot into the sky.

She wouldn't even be given the chance to save herself. Not even a chance for a chance at living to see her brother again. Tears dripped down her cheeks and she held a hand over her mouth. She wanted to scream and wake up in her bed. Have Zia hold her and wipe her sweaty forehead and tell her it was just a dream.

Wasn't it a dream? Would she wake up in a couple of minutes in her rickety old bed and be able to have breakfast with her brother one last time?

"Cia! Oh, baby! I'm so sorry!" Marsh threw herself to her the minute the door opened. This time, Arcia broke into uncontrolable sobs, Zia sat on her left, rubbing her back and trying to calm her down. That was how they sat for the first two minutes until Zia wiped her eyes and cheeks and said, "Don't be such a clutz out there, show them how smart you are. They'll love you Cia, I promise they will just love you to death."

She whimpered and he tugged her into his arms. Holding her tightly while Marsh layed her head on the younger girl's shoulder. Just letting themselves be with her. They believed and knew she wouldn't be returning. No twelve year old has ever made it out of the games alive, besides. Arcia was always a small and defensless little girl who was never able to take care of herself

No one like Arcia would ever be able to win the games.

Everyone believed it.

...

Later on the train, Arcia just sat, staring into her lap. Her stomach was begging her to devour everything on the table. But, she just nibbled on a piece of bread. Unlike her fellow tribute who was indulging himself to his heart's content. She felt most of her mentors were ignoring her, not even wanting to look at her.

Knowing that she would just be a waste of time. But, she felt the brown eyes of Brack Liswich on her. He had won his games at the age of sixteen about ten years ago. Of course Arcia didn't remember her games. She actually didn't remember anyone's games. When her parents were still around they didn't allow her to watch the games. Nor did Zia once they passed away. He didn't want to expose her to what the world they lived in was truly like.

Ignorance is bliss. Is something she'd heard him say to Marsh sometime before the got married. But, apparently it wasn't.

As Brack watched her, he realized just how innocent she truly was. She'd never seen any type of violence, the only tragic thing that had happened in her life was the death of her wonderful parents. She would have no idea how to defend herself. But, she could win sponsors. He had to admit. She was cute, the Capital liked cute better than tough.

It could work for her. Maybe.

He sighed and tapped her before shoving a plate of food in front of her. She looked up and blinked at him with striking silver eyes. Brack was familiar with her brother. He knew that he was a nice guy, and couldn't imagine what he was going through right now. Knowing that he would never get to see the joy that wasto have his little sister smile at him again.

"Eat." he said. Keeping eye-contact with her. Looking at her and picturing her brother. His copper eyes and black hair were nothing compared to the sandy-haired pile of kittens sititng in front of him. Zia had experiene and knew how to deal with this kind of stuff. If only he was younger and a girl. Brack would have liked to train him. It would be an interesting experience to say the least.

He would have determination that Arcia didn't hold. Brack would like to see the smile on her face after he returned her brother back over to her. Those pretty little silver eyes of hers continued to watch him as she took small and conservative bites. He was glad. Her idiotic partner would be puking his guts out later on. Arcia could obviously tell how rich the food was and knew how to take it.

Or maybe his eyes were giving it away. He was unsure. Maybe the girl was smarter than he thought, because there is no way on Earth that she has tasted Capital food before. No one in the Districts have.

"Okay, do either of you have any sort of skill?" Arcia moved her gaze away from Brack and to Harvey Brown. Victor of the fifty-fourth Hunger Games. She felt ashamed, she had no sort of skill whatsoever. None at all. Except for tying knots and falling down. She shook her head after her partner spoke about how he was skilled with various knives and an axe. So was her brother, he had been working really hard with the animals since her parents died.

Whenever he wasn't home, all he did was work. Harvey sighed in annoyance at her response and Brack just kept his face blank.

...

Later that evening, Arcia layed in her bed with her eyes open. Despite how comfortable she was, she couldn't sleep. The only thing she cared about was the need to go home. To see her big brother again. She toyed with the piece of leather as if it were the most interesting thing in the world. But, she held it in a vice grip, as if it were her life source.

**...**

**Hi.**

**This had been something I have been waiting to post for a while, I have been working on this story for about two years and...YEAH**

**I hope you enjoyed it.**

**But, even if you didn't. I'm gonna keep posting because I ENJOY THIS SHIT, OKAY!**

**I AIN'T GONNA DEAL WITH NO NARCISTIC ASSHOLES**

**YOU GOT ME**

**Of course, I'm just kidding. Of course you guys can tell me whether or not you like it. But, that doesn't mean I'm going to change any of it.**

**Love you guys. **

**Tell me what you think.**

**-Meghan**


	2. Chapter 2

...

...

Once Brack woke up, he quickly noticed the bright light coming from his window and the disgusting taste in his mouth, shaking his head. He sat up and got dressed at the slowest pace possible, whatever kept him from habing to leave the sanctuary that was his room. But, he hadn't a choice. He was a mentor.

...

Arcia stared out the window at the bright and cloudless sky. It reminded her of home, but of course the weathers would be the same in the Capital. Swallowing thickly, she looked at the wide expanse of water that the long poles that held up the train's tracks came out of. She wondered how long they actually were.

If she could just jump out of the window and dive straight in. That would be an amazing experience, if she knew how to swim that is. That may be an issue. She imagined the great Finnick Odair, she knew he could swim. So could everyone else in District Four, if it were possible for her to learn how to swim. She would as soon as the chance came her way, but she would never be able to learn.

She frowned and turned around to see that no one had even been looking at her, Brack hasn't come out of his room yet. If she wasn't going to her death she would be worried. Okay, maybe she was a bit worried. No matter what she was going through, she always worried for others. Even if she barely knew that person. She would be worried for them.

Like the two girls she stood between during the reaping. If only she knew that she needed to keep her luck to herself. She knew that it wasn't Zia's fault and that he hadn't lied to her. He'd meant to comfort her. It had comforted her. She was more upset because she hadn't told him that she loved him. It was impossible to speak while she cried. And even if she hadn't been crying, she was too grief stricken to say anything in the first place.

But, now she didn't have the chance to anymore. She just hoped that he knows that she isn't angry with him. Resisting the urge to cry, she turned back to the window. Ignoring the people who obviously wanted nothing to do with her. It was strange.

Even though she'd come to terms with her fate. She was angry that they believed she couldn't defend herself. It made her sad that these people wouldn't let her try like Zia wants her to.

That was the only reason she would fight, if she was able to defend herself. She would, she would fight back to the best of her ability.

...

Arcia lied back on the frigid piece of metal. Despite her age, one of her three stylists was removing her pubic hair. It made her want to throw up a bit in her mouth, but she just smiled when the woman told her what she was going to do. She was happy that all of her stylists are female. They even say that her main stylist is a female as well. This gave her so much relief, it would make the experience so much more degrading if there was a male in the room.

"Oh, you're just so cute! I just want to cuddle you half to death!" One squealed when Arcia blinked her big silver eyes at her. She didn't understand what was so cute about the action, so she just smiled at the woman anyways. Letting her see her teeth.

They just squealed once more and began to work with her hair. When they saw the small piece of leather holding the braid together, they threw it into the trash before she could even protest. Now, that hurt more than anything. The last piece of her brother that she had on her person had just been thrown away like trash. She bit her lip to hold back her tears.

They probably hadn't meant to, but they did it anyways. They weren't very intelligent, so the young girl just leaned back and let them work on her.

Soon enough, they left to get her stylist and Arcia ran straight to the trash bin. After going past piles of her own hair, she found it and sighed in relief. Thankful that there wasn't some sort of shoot at the bottom of the can that would have made the precious leather just dissapear. She tied it around her index finger. A smile on her lips, and quickly stood when the door began to slide open.

They didn't even have to open doors by themselves.

The woman hadn't been what the young girl had expected. She wore a tight leapoard print leotard that covered down to her ankles and had long sleeves. But, there was a lot of cleavage on the front. Her skin was the color of mocha, her lips were covered with bright red lipstick and her hair was curly yet frizzy at the same time. One thing about the entire appearance was that her eyes were orange and her pupils were cat like slits.

Arcia wanted to scream but bit her tongue. The woman sauntered over, Arcia had forgotten she was naked and she quickly crossed her arms over her chest with her cheeks turning pink with embarrassment. But, the woman just looked her over for a couple of moments before saying,

"I'm Katiana, it is nice to meet you Arcia." Arcia just stuttered out a 'you too' before the woman forced her ams away from her chest and held them above her head. Spinning her around a couple of times. Scanning her eyes over every part of her body.

For a few moments, Kantina looked to be in deep thought before saying. "You're exactly what I was hoping for." And throwing a robe at her.

...

The entire day of the chariots went straight through Arcia. When she woke up in the middle of the night. She couldn't remember a thing. Rubbing her forhead she sighed and turned over to look at the clock on her bedside table. The clock told her that it was two A.M. the silver-eyed girl couldn't remember when she went to bed. It had to have been early, but aside from that fact. She still felt drained.

For some reason, her head felt heavy and she felt like she hadn't slept in a week. It was so stange. She hadn't done anything too taxing through out the entire day. From what she could remember anyways. It was like her mind just shut off when it was time for her to get onto the chariots. It was hard to understand. She wasn't sure whether or not it was something she'd eaten, if it was stress. Shaking her head, she rolled over and pressed her face into her pillow, wanting sleep to take her once more.

...

The next morning, Arcia woke only due to the fact that her stylist was shaking her. Light was streaming from the window that played the scene of a field of wheat, as she rubbed her tired lids. Of course there was merciless nagging still going on around her and she was quickly yanked out of her bed.

Her stylist and her prep team pulling off her clothes and complaining about the state of her waist length hair. The truth was, her hair had just never had the chance to be cut. Her brother always said that he would never just use a knife on it, and that was the only reason. But, she knew that he just liked her hair too much.

From what Zia had always told her, their mother wore her hair all the way down to her wait as well. All Arcia knew was that she was the purely her mother. Not that she could find out otherwise, she couldn't ask Zia what their father was like. Whenever she had tried in the past, all he would do is shake his head and tell her he was tired.

Maybe what he was doing was selfish, but Arcia respected his wishes. And hoped that he would one day tell her about her father. It was true that everyone in her District was in love with her, not in a romantic way. Just because she was so kind-hearted and sweet, but they never told her about her parents either. And Arcia had no idea where any of her blood relatives were.

...

Brack ran his fingers through his hair as his fellow Victors argued amongst themselves. What they were discussing? Who would deal with Arcia. None of them wanted her, but they couldn't neglect a tribute. Even if it was obvious they had no chance, you had to do something to help them.

"The only reason she would get any sponsors would be because of her physical appearance, and there is no way I'm talking to those sick men and women about what they'd want to do with a little girl." Harvey

"Oh, shut up! The brat can't possibly bring out that kind of attitude from anyone, sure. She could make up some sob story during her interview. But, that depends on whether or not she can actually _speak_!" Vera

He was quickly developing a headache, and was just getting angrier and angrier with his fellow victors as each word left their mouths. Why was it so hard to just give the poor thing a little hope before putting her out there? You don't treat anyone this way, especially someone who will be facing their death in a couple of days.

"I'll take her if you would just shut the fuck up!" Brack yelled over all of them and it was suddenly very, very silent. None of them moved, they just stared at the young man with confusion and shock.

_'Wow, they really thought I would just sit back and let them argue over who gave a little girl a chance at life. Fuck. Them.'_

...

Arcia stared at the floor of the elevator and the only sound to be heard was the breathing of her fellow tribute. But, the silence didn't remain that way for long. Before she realized he had even moved, she was slammed into the side of the elevator and about a foot off of the ground. Being held up by the collar of her shirt.

The male from her District was glaring at her with disgust, she was terrified at that moment, she'd never been so scared of a person in her life. Never had anyone ever showed such anger towards her. It was an odd sensation to be scared like this, it was like she was standing on the stage all over again. Everyone in her District staring up at her with pity in their eyes, as if she was already lying down in her casket.

"Listen to me, runt. I don't care about what you do or who the hell you are, I just want you to stay the hell away from me. Don't talk to me, sit near me, don't even dare to look at me. If I catch you, I'll make sure you're the first one I kill in the arena, got it?" she swallowed thickly, nodding frantically. Still not feeling like talking to anyone.

He dropped her only a minute before the elevator doors opened and he stepped out, with her following slowly behind. Making sure she kept her distance.

...

When Brack went down with Vera to pick up the tributes. There were only a couple of them remaining, and his pair were as far away from each other as possible. It didn't surprise him, it was obvious that it was the boy that caused this. He also knew because Arci only stared at her feet and she was shaking like a leaf.

Vera went over to the boy so he headed over to Arcia, he bent down to her height and grasped her chin, forcing her to look at him. He held back a gasp when he saw her face. Somehow, in only seven hours, this child had gotten her lip split open, and a black eye. He frowned, "What happened?" he asked. Sure, the tributes weren't allowed to hit each other until the games, though, if they had permission. They could do whatever they wanted.

"They set up combat training and I was paired with the boy from Six." after so long, he finally heard her soft little voice. She was thirsty, was one of the first things he noticed when she began speaking. He looked at the one silver eye still visible. It was glassy with tears, she was trying so hard not to cry.

He sighed and stood up, looking to see Vera and the boy standing by the elevator, waiting.

"Come on, a little bit of cream will fix your pretty little face right up." he told her. She blinked and slowly nodded. Following after him as he began to walk off.

...

By the time dinner came around, Arcia's eye was healed completly and her lip had stopped throbbing. She saw Brack's relief, but his expression immediatly turned stoic when Harvey began to speak.

"What'd the two of you do today?" she didn't speak until her fellow tribute stopped bragging about all of his 'accomplishments'. Of course, she had listened to him and not looked at him for 99.9% of the day. But, she noticed at lunch how he had not broken a sweat. All he could have possibly done was try to get into an alliance.

When it was her turn to speak, she took a couple of seconds to actually form words and think about what she was going to say. Their stares put her on edge, they made her feel nervous, especially since Brack refused to show any support. The only expression that wasn't filled with annoyance was Katiana's, she smiled brightly. Her eyes twinkling with excitement.

Somehow, it made her feel comfortable.

"Um, I worked more on the survival stations. Like...identifying plants and fire starting." she hated how stupid she sounded. Oh how she wanted to go home and cry on her brother's shoulder like she did after a nightmare.

"Good, there's no use in knowing how to defend yourself if you don't have the energy to do it." Brack spoke and quickly stuffed a piece of pork into his mouth. Chewing on it slowly.

**...**

**Here's another Chapter.**

**I hope you're happy. Even though you don't care.**

**Love you,**

**Bye**

**-Meghan**


	3. Chapter 3

Brack quickly learned that Arcia's weapon had to be knives. After he had gone over what the maximum weight she would be able to carry without an issue, and measuring her height, weight, and little to non-existent muscles. Her decided knives would be the best fit, preferably, throwing knives. Just to make things a bit more specific.

He just...he can't imagine Arcia slashing at people. If she could even manage to get a weapon, which was highly unlikely. She would be obliderated if she tried to make her way through the blood bath. Of course, they would want to take out the easiest first. Though people would think much differently, they always believe that taking out the strongest first would make it easier in the long run.

But, if you were given the choice of a nice easy kill verses a kill where you could possibly be the first to die and go down as that person. Which would you choose? Having to waste all your energy on the strongest tributes you can find in the beginning is just stupid. They would pick off Arcia in a second. She being the youngest one going in. Brack was surprised that she had been the only twelve year old. Ever since Finnick won three years ago, they had been making an effort to bring in the younger kids.

There were about four 12 year-olds last year and three 13 year-olds. Brack knew that they weren't picked on accident, no matter how many entries you have, if you are what the people want. The people will get you. No matter what, the president will do whatever he needs to do to keep the Capitalites happy.

...

Arcia's hands were stretched and sore, she had thrown knives for the first four hours of training and only moved away for a while to relax them. She tried to think of something she could practice without using her hands. Which, as you would expect, proves difficult. Knot tying, hands. Climbing, hands. Close combat, hands. And any weapon, hands!

She couldn't immediatly think of anything not too taxing while her hands twitched strangely, leaving her with little control. She was sure her knuckles would be bruised by morning. Or in the next hour or so. It was something she was more than unsure of.

...

Arcia was struggling to hold her fork correctly at dinner time. She had purposely hidden her hands from Bracks' vision without him noticing. And he had yet to notice them still, after working so hard all day with the knives, the instructor told her to go at the punching bags. So, she did. The skin of her knuckles was torn wide open, and she had nearly gotten sick herself.

She washed the blood and just wrapped them in the bandages in her bathroom drawer. When she had put them on, she noticed that they quickly adapted to the color of her skin, making them nearly invisible. Arcia found it rather impressive, though it was probably more than normal to everyone here.

If only Zia could see, as he would have such angry bloody cuts that he could never hide from her innocent eyes good enough. She remembered how many times she had cried whenever she saw him bleeding, even if it was from the smallest thing. It was a huge deal for her. If her big brother was hurt, she was hurt as well. That was just how things worked in her mind.

She knew that her parents had died rather suddenly, though she didn't even know who they were anymore. In all honesty, she remembered little to nothing about her parents. Zia always said that she looked like mom and he looked like dad. And that was about it for their physical details.

Arcia craved to know more constantly but no one really told her that kind of information, which confused her more than anything else. But, now she knew that it was only the actions of her big brother that had caused all of this. He had become her parent only two months after their parents death. Arcia didn't even know or care for them anymore as a child. And that thought always made her sick to her stomach.

She broke away from her thoughts when she felt a pair of deep brown eyes on her skin, burning holes straight into her body. Looking up slowly, knowing that she would most certainly see a glare of irritation. She braced herself and peered from behind her hair at Brack, his eyes looking at her, more her hands, than anything else.

Her hands were shaking while she held onto her fork, sure, they were sore and a bit tense. But, it wasn't that big of a deal. To her anyways.

Faster than she could comprehend, Brack excused himself from the table, dragging her down into the hallway along with him. The first thing she had expected was for him to scream in her face when she was yanked into his room and told to sit down on his bed. But, something very different occured.

The girl stared confusedly as Brack got to his knees and grabbed one of her hands. Beginning to pull off the bandages, she was going to protest when she felt her skin resist the movement. The blood had yet to stop flowing and it was glueing the bandages to her torn knuckles, where only a layer of flesh away were her bones.

She whined as he finally yanked it off, and sighed with relief. Then she suddenly realized something she now hated her parents for.

There were nine more fingers to go.

...

When all the bandages had been removed, they were simply tossed to the floor. Forgotten by Brack completly. He stared at her gushing hands for a second, not allowing her to pull them from his grasp or try to stop the liquid from leaking onto the floor. She gasped as he took her index finger and gave it one strong yank.

The muscle made a loud snap and she cried out rather loudly, her eyes filling up with pain filled tears. But, Brack continued on. Yanking on each finger until her heard that same satisfying snap. While Arcia let her tears rush over her cheeks, wailing like a toddler who fell straight onto it's behind.

"You shouldn't be so stupid." He told her, whiping away her tears with his thumbs. He sounded so calm, though his actions prroved otherwise. He was irritated with her, she knew it. But, the problem was...why? "Look at your hands." he commanded gently, without waiting for her to simply do it herself. He tilted her head downwards so she could look.

Surprisingly, the bleeding had stopped and her fingers now felt loose. Like they could just be pulled off.

"First of all, you didn't clean them properly. Secondly, you didn't use anything to help heal the cuts. But, before you even did those things. You did not stop the bleeding, with is a lot easier for you to do than you would expect. Actually, you should have just come to me. I would have helped you Arcia."

"Now, you've lost plently of your blood and we both know that's not good. And we also missed dinner." he finished with a sigh. And he then looked to her expectantly. She hadn't a clue why. But, he did. As if he were waiting for a reply, but how was she supposed to respond to that? He just ridiculed her and told her a bunch of stuff that she should and should not have done.

She had never been in this situation before. But, that made more sense. Her brother had babied her all of her life, she had no clue what tough love was. Which was something most kids in her District did know. But, she was the princess in ber brother's eyes. And he always told her it was okay and not her fault. And because of that, she believed him. Like nothing would ever be her fault.

Oh, but this pain she was going through. This was a well-known fact that it was not her fault, sure. Not cleaning it an wrapping it properly was her fault. But, she had never had to do it before. And she hadn't seen the medication or healing stuff Brack had been talking about in her bathroom. So, what was she supposed to say. By his expression. Sorry, was most definetly not going to cut it.

But, it was the only thing she could really say in this situation. So, she did.

...

"I'm sorry." she mumbled to him, her eyes downcast. He huffed and stood up, he would certainly have to fix her hands. Kantella would throw a fit if her knuckles became scarred and her hands bruised. Sure, she could cover it up when it was time for the interview. Of course, it was still a day away. But, that didn't really matter. Kantella could cover it up, but that wouldn't be enough.

...

Arcia was plopped onto Brack's lap and he began to properly scrub at her hands. The medication on the strange paper he had, it burned her torn knuckles but she kept quiet about it. She was already embarrased about all of her tears from earlier. She was supposed to be strong about this, there was no use crying when she was never going to get out of this in the first place.

She just swallowed back her winces and crys of pain. Brack would get annoyed by it anyways, even if he acted so sweet to her all of the time. It was obvious that she was annoying, no one liked little girls, almost teenage girls, that cry all the time. Sure, she had overheard Brack and Harvey arguing and that she would only get sponsors because of how young and innocent she was.

In less words, they would like her because they would give her pity. They would sponsor her because they would feel bad for her, that was the only explanation that she could think of. Though Harvey always insinuated something else, something she couldn't possibly understand.

He gently swiped off the blood of her fingers, making them clean and a lot less gruesome looking. "Be careful with these tomorrow. The private sessions are the day after tomorrow, so let your hands rest a bit so you can show off to them. Study some more plantlife, try to memorize what is and is not edible. Understand?" he asked her. He seemed so serious, and if she were looking at him.

That was all she would see. Again, she was questioning why he cared so much, but would always remain thankful. "Yes, I will." she confirmed softly. She could practically feel his grin from behind her. "Good, but if I see you with bloody knuckles again due to your own stupidity. I may have to kill you myself." he said to her. Her eyes widened and he just laughed.

Craning his neck around and tilting his head, pressing his lips to her soft cheek. A blush rose up to her skin and she turned her face away. Making the young man burst into hysterical laughter, only making her much more embarrased than before.

...

That night, as Arcia sat in her bed. Waiting for sleep to take her away from the world she was beginning to hate so much. Just wanting to see her brother's face again, smiling at her and Marsh beside him. Their wedding day that had been so beautiful, she had been entranced by all the detail her brother and his friends had put into it. Trying to make everything look perfect for his fiance.

He had been shaved cleanly and dressed in his nicest clothes, he wore that dazzling grin of his throughout every second of the day. And Arcia knew that she was never the only thing that could make her brother happy with just a smile. Marsh could do that too, and so much better than she ever could.

**...**

**This had been a Chapter.**

**One about stuff.**

**And Things.**

**So, yeah. **

**I hope you enjoyed this. **

**I honestly, don't care if you want more or not. Because, you're gonna get it either way.**

**That's it for now.**

**Bye.**

**-Meghan**


	4. Chapter 4

Arcia headed Brack's advice about taking it easy and spent the entire day working with plants and such. But, she didn't get bored like she had expected. It was really interesting and morbid, the Capital would be placing so many things in the arena to try and kill her. There were only a handful of plants that were safe enough to eat. But, each could have some strange side effects.

One was a orange looking berry about the size of her pupil, you could eat them. But, there was no saying whether or not you would be able to keep them down for more than an hour. In the end, the more you ate and the more you made yourself sick, the more nutrients you lost. Another just burned all the important fat you held in your body. And to Arcia, all of the fat on her body was pretty important.

Mainly because of the small amount. At least if she became starving, her body would take that fat instead of just let her starve. It was like a emergency mechanism. Everybody had that ability, so the kids from one and two. They had spent their life just growing muscle and burning all of the fat and calories they had.

So in the unlikely even that they would begin to starve. Their body wouldn't be able to burn the muscle to keep itself alive. They'd have a harder time actually, since they would have to eat more due to all of their muscle. That muscle burned energy anytime you used it, and if you were starving, that muscle would burn away the little amount of energy you have. Then what would you have?

All you could really do was try and find something to eat or die.

...

Since Arcia did little to nothing except for studying, lunch came around rather slowly. And when it was that time, Arcia sighed in dissapointment. Even though studying wasn't the best way to pass the time, it was fun to learn new things. Especially about such little things that could kill her. That kind of information had been kept from her her entire life. She swallowed thickly at the smell of food and began to stand up.

She had made sure to wait until the room was vacant before standing up and heading out. No one noticed her as it was, so she wasn't hoping to attract attention to herself. Though, always being the last person to entire the lunch room wasn't exactly keeping all of the people's attention away from her.

She shrugged her shoulders and reached for the door handle, but her fingers only brushed the cold steel before she was gripped by the collar of her shirt and yanked backwards. Straight into someone's chest.

Reesulting in this, all the air left her fragile lungs. And great dark arms wrapped around her waist. Keeping her in place, she was about to cry out but his index finger hooked onto the waistline of her pants. Playing with the elastic there. "You're a cute little runt, and you're pretty good with those knives, too. What's your name, doll?" Arcia was completly disgusted by this deep voiced male. Whose hand had redirected itself up into her shirt. Splaying his fingers across the landscape of her stomach.

By his height and muscle mass, he had to at least be within the age of fifteen and seventeen and the way he was speaking and touching her was what you would call...abnormal.

"Arcia May..." she mumbled and he chuckled. His hands were surprisingly cold, he must not do a lot of physical work. But, that was most definetly not the case. "Thank you, princess. I hope that you and I will see a lot of each other in the arena." he said in her ear humorously, before releasing her.

She found herself frozen, and unable to move until his footsteps faded away. Her heart was pounding away in her chest at the tought of this male. This male that had such a strange and deranged interest in her, who promised he would make and appearance in the arena. If she could even last long enough to make it past the bloodbath.

Taking a deep breath, she moved forward robotically into the lunch room. Ignoring the long stares of the other tributes.

...

Brack watched Arcia's every move during dinner, her small silvery eyes not staying focused on anything for too long. As if it would jump up and attack her. He sighed softly enough to alert Harvey beside him, he stared at him with a raised eyebrow. Obviously curious and a bit irritated. Almost like saying. "What is it now?"

He just shook his head to himself and continued to eat while watching his tribute. So small, and so very skitish. Suddenly, she ejected herself from her seat and took off down the hallway. Brack and Kantella sat up at the same time, and the woman looked at him with her cat eyes. Telling him to sit down and let her handle it herself;

He hesiatated before sitting down again. Ignoring the stares of the others at the table, the male tribute looked annoyed by some of the other's slight concern. As if caring about a little girl was something they should all be ashamed of.

...

Arcia felt long fingers combing through her hair as her stomach emptied itself into the toilet bowl. A sudden sickness had hit her when she had thought back to the dark male who had been on her mind throughout the entire day. During lunch, she had searched around the room to look for the male that had spoken to her.

But, she had even heard his feet go off behind her after their encounter. She hadn't seen any tributes missing among the usual. But, she hadn't been paying them any attention at all either way. So, it was impossible for her to really place him. But, he had called her a runt. The thing her brother used to say to her with affection instead of disgust or longing. Now, she didn't believe that if she did make it home.

Her brother could never call her that again.

"You are alright, my dear. Just try to calm down." she heard her stylist say calmly and sweetly.

The usual person would expect such a person from the Capital to be disgusted, but she wasn't, she was handling the situation without a problem. And that helped out the blonde a bit. She lifted her head and her hair was pulled back and quickly tied into a knot in the back of her head, and a hand towel was placed in her hand. Arcia wiped her face and mumbled out her gratitude. "It is okay, my dear. Do you know why you became sick?" she asked as she took her tooth brush and smothered it in paste.

Arcia was grateful, not wanting this horrible taste in her mouth to last any longer than it already has. "I don't know, could it be something I ate?" she asked softly. Kantella laughed lightly as Arcia began to brush her teeth. For a second she paused, wondering what her stylist found so funny about her question.

"Not possible, darling. You hadn't even taken a bite." the blonde blushed and spat into the sink so she could respond. "Then I don't know..."

...

The very next morning, Brack was awoken by a shrill scream of absolute terror. And then a squeal of excitement that he quickly recognized as Kantella. The scream was pretty surprising but recognizable. Even though he had never had the displeasure of actually hearing it, he ran his fingers through his hair and pulled himself out of bed. Still in just sleep pants.

He headed over to Arcia's room, not really caring about her reaction to his half-naked form, she would be shocked. But, who cares?

...

Kantella seemed so excited after Arcia had gone to training, looking completly mortified and uncomfortable. He had tried to ask what had happened, since he had been locked out of her room this morning. So, he hadn't tried to get her to answer and he didn't really worry about. He instantly assumed it was something she was never going to be willing to discuss. She was under enough stress already. Today was the day of the scoring.

She would be rated on her skills by the GameMakers in a private session. Brack just hoped that she wouldn't burst into tears. But, then again...that might actually work...

"Arcia became a woman!" Kantella sang and Brack's eyes widened at her cheerful statement. How was this a _good _thing? Brack sighed and shook his head at the woman's excitement. It was offical.

He would never understand what went on in the mind of a woman such as Kantella. Now, that wouldn't really be fun to know, now would it?

...

As Arcia sat and waited with the other tributes, she looked around at all of them. None of them seemed to fit the character of the male that had cornered her the day before. Not that she knew much of his appearance either. She knew that he was strong and dark-skinned. And it all but ended there.

There were only five dark-skinned tributes this year. Two of them were female, one of the males was only a year older than her and quite scrawny. But, the other two males were both pretty similar except one was from District 8 and the other was from District 2. She thought of the kids from 8 to be relativley normal, but she was unsure about the ones from 2. Though they seemed vicious. They had no real reason to be after her.

But, it was hard to narrow down either of them. Both of their expression's were unreadable and bored, as if they just couldn't bring themselves to care.

She waited for about about an hour before her district partner was finally called in. So, know she knew she wouldn't have to wait much longer before getting this over with. There wasn't much she could do except for throwing knives. Well enough anyways, the trainer seemed impressed. Mainly because she had caught on so quickly.

She didn't remember how long the sessions lasted. But, they couldn't be too long, that was for sure. How else would they get anything done if they just allowed the tributes to work in there for as long as they want. They were almost too organized at times, but nothing could go wrong in the Capital. It was just the way they wanted things to be there. And no other person had a choice.

A rye smile worked it's way onto her lips, and before realizing how insane she looked, each of the remaining tributes look to the small girl from ten. As she grins in an almost bitter way, staring off into space.

...

Brack grasped the young girl's wrist as she tried to work her way around him and escape to her room. But, it was far too easy for him to catch her. She was good at knife throwing for sure, but she wasn't able to run away very quickly without much difficulty. She sighed and turned back to look at him.

He have her a look that told her he wasn't going to let her leave until he had some answers about what happened during her session. The girl wasn't very stubborn, but that hadn't even been how it seemed. She seemed more scared of his reaction than anything else. That made him feel a bit hurt. But, what was she supposed to know. Though, he had hoped she would have trusted him by now.

Then again, the little situation taht occured this morning may make her a bit uncomfortable.

But, there might not be a reason at all. He has a feeling that she really had no idea about puberty. He shook the thought from his head and tugged Arcia away and down to his own room. Since his fellow mentors and all others were going to listen to each of the words she would say.

Her tribute partner would want to know whatever he could do to keep her from making it anywhere near the final...anything. He would try to keep things from her and make sure that she would die eventually.

He was a person Brack couldn't understand, even if it wasn't unusual for the weakest to be killed first in the games. But, her partner had a strange hatred for her. There wasn't anything that Brack had noticed the young girl doing to irritate him. But, he wasn't there at the training sessions. Maybe he had a bad tempermant and she was doing something to set him off.

...

After Brack closed his door, the girl plopped onto his bed as she had two nights before. But, the situation wasn't as bad. There was no blood or injury involved, unless pain was being inflicted upon her ego. Not that there was much of that to start with.

"Now, what made you want to run like a bat out of hell? WAIT! Don't tell me you did something stupid like stab a Gamemaker or some shit!" he yelled. She swallowed thickly and looked down at her hands before going on with her little story. He paced back and forth in front of her, making her nerves shoot through the roof.

"I went in and I just did what you wanted me to do. I threw knives around and hit about every target, all of them were dead on and they were watching me. They seemed only a little bit impressed but others just rolled their eyes at me. But, I just kept throwing and eventually I ran out of knives. But, before I did."

"I threw a knife to one of the smallest targets in the room...and I was sure that I was going to get it like all of the others. But...I think I was too cocky. So, I threw it and...I missed it completly and it was just stuck in the floor under it. All the Gamemakers started laughing and...And I just stood there until they stopped."

"I felt so stupid and when they stopped. They just dismissed me. Still laughing a little, so I ran out of there as fast as I could."

She finished, her voice was strained as she held back tears of embarrasment. Brack stopped pacing and looked over at her with an amused expression. What did her find so funny? She wondered and tried to glare at him, but he just chuckled at her.

"You think you did bad. Don't you?" he asked her. Coming down and sitting beside her, the way she looked at him confirmed his suspicions. He laughed loudly and began to prod at her sides. The young girl cried out in shock and tried t squirm away. She wanted to stay irritated with him, he was laughing at her. And she didn't like it.

Before she could slip to the floor in her attempt at escape, he grabbed her and yanked her into his lap. Holding her down with one arm while prodding at her with his other hands. She squeaked and laughed loudly, fighting against him. But her resistance was futile. "You think you did something bad, hmmm?" he asked teasingly.

...

Arcia had eventually gotten away from her mentor and was safe for the rest of the day. When it was time for the scores to be announced, he reasured her on multiple occasions. Saying that she knew better than to doubt herself. But, that was wrong.

She had plenty of a reason to doubt herself, that one target had screwed her over and it was her own fault. She had tried blaming it on the inanimate object, to no avail. But, she kept her thoughts and anxieties bottled up tightly, refusing the let Brack keep on comforting her when he would never be able to do it either way.

Caesar Flickerman was laughing and grinning throughout the entire ordeal, making comments on certain scores and cringing at the especially low ones some tributes recieved. There weren't many, mainly because she was the youngest and the rest of the tributes were fifteen and older. So, they had at least a bit of age and development going for them. Making it a bit easier for them to train.

She swallowed thickly after her partner, Yaler, got his score. He got an easy nine, which surprised her. He was right up there with the Careers. She shook her head at herself and closed her eyes. Keeping her ears wide open for her own score.

"Arcia May, District Ten...Six!" he exclaims and makes no insulting comment. Brack presses his lips to her temple and whispers into her ear. "You're exactly half-way. Not great but not horrible either." he tells her and she looks up to give him a small smile.

**...**

**Hi.**

**Yeah, it's another Chapter that I kope you enjoy. **

**I didn't.**

**See ya' later!**

**Bye!**

**-Meghan**


	5. Chapter 5

Arcia frowned when Brack shoved her out of bed the next morning, but of course. No one would smile if this had happened to them. He laughed at her groan of annoyance, due to her fall. Her comforter had wrapped around her body in a cacoon, making it nearly impossible for her to escape her confines.

After a few moments of laughter and teasing remarks. Her mentor slipped her out, making it seem so much simpler than it actually was. Without allowing her to get dressed out of her nightgown, he shoved her out of her room. Nearly making her fall on multiple occasions, he wouldn't even give her a chance to walk properly or rub the sleep out of her eyes.

She felt her other mentors and tribute partner watch the pair as Brack continued to push her to a room on the complete other side of the apartment. She had never even known there were doors on this side. Not that they were very noticable, they were just panels that slid open and closed when someone was a certain distance away.

Before she could comprehend what was really happening, she was sitting on a couch with Brack shoveling food down her throat. She had tried to push him away at first, but that only made things more complicated. Meaning that it made it a lot less harder to breathe properly.

"You really are too thin, but that's your fault. Little Ms. May. I should have fattened you up when I had the chance. I wonder why Kantella hadn't started this earlier. Well, I guess it would make it easier for her to dress you. Since she already had a certain size taken from first meeting you, but then again. What do I know? I'm not exactly a designer if you know what I mean. You probably know. Anyways.."

Brack continued to babble on like a drunken idiot whil forcing her to lick every single plate of food the Avox had brought in clean. She wondered if someone had drugged him for a few moments, he was doting on her one minute then he was torturing her in some strange way the next. Honestly! Was he bi-polar?!

This continued on for about half an hour and soon, there was a pile of plates being carried out of the room. As Arcia layed on the couch with a very unhappy stomach, she hadn't even been able to taste the food. Much less be given the chance to digest it properly. Her bowels would either be in deep shit later...literally. Or her digestive system would just send it back up from where it came from. Neither optiong was bery appealing, but she hadn't been given a choice.

"Now that that's done! I already know what we're going to do for you out there on that stage. We are going to totally make those idiots pity the absolute crap out of you. You're already adorable and innocent, and they like that. So we will play that. It's too true for us to not play it. But, are you going to do it how I want you to do it, this is the question I need an answer to." He then seemed to slip into his own mind.

As if she was no longer in the room anymore, he began to mumble to himself about God knows what. But, she was more than thankful. Now she didn't have to worry about opening her mouth and accidentaly vomiting on the floor.

...

Zia gripped onto his wife's hand. They had all of their friends and family over for the interviews that would only start in four short hours. He wondered how his little sister was doing. He wanted to see her pretty little face again and hear her voice. So he could know whether or not she was alright.

He could only imagine how she was doing right now, he had seen the way her mentors had looked at her. They looked like they weren't even going to try and help her out, and that scared him. No one should allow a child to just care for themself in a situation such as this one. Zia knew his little sister had no chance out in the arena. But, someone had to help her, she had to be so scared.

"It's okay, I'm sure she's fine." Marsh mumbled into his ear, stroking his back comfortingly. He felt tense and tired. He hadn't been able to sleep, he had thought about his little sister crying in bed. All alone, and he couldn't allow himself to sleep in comfort.

One of his closest friends spoke up, Friesan. "Dude, she even got a six. For someone as young as her, it's super rare to get anything over a five. Even if it's still low, we at least know that she can survive well enough." Zia nodded slowly and continued to watch the screen. They were showing the tributes' chariot costumes. Watching them smile and wave all over again, but Zia had seen his little sister.

Her eyes were empty as she grinned and waved to the crowd around her. He would know whether or not she was really happy. And she was far from it.

"I just...I can't help but worry. The Victor's from are District aren't known to be to kind, well...No mentor likes to waste their time on a young girl such as Arcia. Who knows if they are even trying to help her. They were all so brutal in their own games, I've seen them chop kids like Arcia into pieces. Who knows if they'll just let the kids in the games this year do just that." he said sadly.

He would have to watch them tear his little sister to pieces, or let her bleed out in agony, or starve, dehydrate. There were so many things that he could no longer protect her from, leaving her in the care of the people who had been apart in the mass murder only a few years before hand.

...

Arcia gasped as Kantella tightened the cords around her waist yet again. She had put a thin fabric under the thin cords that coiled from the tops of her non-existent breasts to her waist. Her stylist made sure they were perfectly arranged. The rest of the dress was a dusky pink and translucent fabric that felt slightly scratchy against her skin. Layered and layered again and again. Making it look fluffy but in a way that didn't mean if she beant down. The skirt would touch her face.

It went just past her knees and her legs were completly bare and all she wore were some simple black flats. Arcia liked it quite a bit, aside from the fact that she could barely breathe, it was nice.

One of the members of her prep team was braiding only a few parts of her hair. Leaving a few elegant looking fish tail braids here and there. She was watching the ordeal with confusion, her face was almost clear of make-up except for some gray powder on her eyelids that made them look like she had rubbed ashes on her face.

Kantella quickly rubbed some pink sticky liquid on her lips, making them a pale pink. Arcia could taste it and she knew instantly that she did not like it. Kantella and the rest of her team look at her and laughed. The expression she was making was one so cute and amusing that even President Snow himself would giggle about.

Her lower lip was pouted and her eyebrows were drawn together. "Calm your face darling, you don't want wrinkles now do you?" Kantella said and stroked the ssmall girl's cheek. Arcia sighed and allowed her face to relax. As she tried to ignore the taste in her mouth.

...

Zia watched as each tribute walked out and had their interview, but Zia payed no attention whatsoever as he waited not so patiently for his little sister. To see her silvery grey eyes twinkle when she talked about something she liked.

His wife sat beside him and his friends had all brought over their own chairs and seats into the little home and they stared at the screen. Waiting for the loved little girl they had all watched grow up. The one that none of them could have done anything to protect. He swallowed thickly and they all listened closely as Caesar Flickerman began to call her out.

_"Next, we have our youngest tribute this year! The beautiful...adorable...ARCIA MAY!" _The yellow haired man stood withe a wide grin and Zia then saw his sister. His beautiful little Arcia walked out in a dainty little dress and flats. Her short stature moved slowly and cautiously to the Capitalite. As soon as she was close enough to him, he grabbed her tiny hand and pressed his lips to it. Pulling away with a laugh at seeing her pretty blush.

Zia clenched his fists in his lap, his sister sat down and gave the yellow haired man a nervous smile.

_"Now, Arcia. How does it feel being the only twelve year old in this year's games? Does it make you nervous?" _He cut to the chase and Zia watched his sister's expression closely. Her pretty silver eyes were trained on the man speaking to her. She looked to be in a thought for a single moment before responding.

_"Well, it makes me nervous. Why wouldn't it? But, I don't think I'll be knocked out too soon." _she responded with a smile. Caesar smiled bakck and patted her hand. _"It's great to know you have some spirit! Who's motivating you, who are you hoping to get back home to?" _

He saw her expression chance, her lower lip turning into a small pout and her eyes glittering. Everyone in the audience seemed to notice and gave soft 'awws' of adoration. They thought she was cute. And Zia knew that she was thinking about him. Thinking that made tears well up in his eyes, she was hoping to get home and see him again. But, she wouldn't get the chance, he knew it.

_"My big brother, Zia and his wife, Marsh. They've taken care of me sicne I was six, right when my parents passed away. But, it doesn't bother me that much since I can barely remember them." _She said. Zia sighed, she was being much too open for his liking. But, she had a right to say whatever she wanted.

She deserved just that much. _"I'm sure you'll make it home to him, Arcia."_ she nodded in response and her eyes looked glassy with unshed tears.

_"Let me just stop to say, I love your dress, Ms. May. What is the name of your stylist?" _he asked her. Arcia responded quickly with a smile, _"Her name is Kantella, she has been so nice to me since I came here. Everyone has been really nice."_

Zia could see that she was lying. It was so easy to see through her, but all the other people over there believed her. They hooted and hollered and gave out rash commentary about themselves.

_"Haha! I would surely hope so!" _And then the buzzer went off and Arcia pouted. Along with Caesar who frowned regretfully. He took her hand gently and they both stood from their seats. Facing the crowd, Caesar swung their hands above Arcia's head and screamed her name out with a smile.

She was quickly ushered off of the dazziling stage and Zia was suddenly aware of where his sister was going tomorrow. And this may have been the last time he would see her with a smile on her face. He broke into sobs at the thought and put his face in his hands. Why did it have to be his sister? Why couldn't it have been someone who could take care of themselves instead of a defensless little girl?

...

Brack was shaken awake by small pushes and soft sniffles and whimpers. Instantaneously, he sat straight up and looked to the little asailant. Standing beside his bed with big silver eyes, rimmed red and tears rushing down her pale little cheeks. Brack gasped as her whimpers that she had been trying so hard to hide turned into heart-wrenching sobs.

"I don't want to go! I want to go home!" she cried out, choking and gasping for air between sobs. His eyes widened and he quickly pulled her up and onto his bed. Pulling her tiny body into his chest.

_She's so cold. _He noted and pulled his comforter over her small body, trying to heat her up. She couldn't aford to catch a cold at this point, her chances were already slim enough. But, she had every right to cry. She had every right to curl up into a bawl and sob her heart out. And he would allow her to do it just this once, when it was time to go out into the games, she would just have to well...suck it up.

As much as he hated to say it, she had to do it. But, he would tell her tomorrow, right before she leaves.

"It's alright. I know, but I promise. I swear to you. I'll let you see your brother again, okay?" the false promise made his heart ache. Unless he could actually go in there and keep the tributes from killing her. He couldn't really get her home. This girl was no murderer, if she even injured someone, he would be surprised.

But, he would do his best. He was the only person left that could protect her in this place.

**...**

**Hi again.**

**Yeah, I think I'll get back to leaving regular notes sooner or later. But, I kind of like doing this.**

**Who knows.**

**What do you guys think?**

**Should I put this in just Arcia's POV or do you like Third Person POV, I'll leave this up to you. Just so you feel a bit special.**

**JK**

**You're special!**

**Love you guys,**

**-Meghan**


	6. Chapter 6

Arcia was staring through the tube of glass that would carry her off and up into the arena, the place where she would have to hurt others. There was an anxiousness welling up in her chest for the time when she would have to hop off of her pedestal. She knew that she had the chance to just jump off and not have to go through all of this suffering. Who knows how long she would last out there anyways.

The careers hadn't seemed too brutal, unlike how Brack had told her. So, there may not have as big of an issue as expected. Then she may have more of a chance, but just because they hadn't seemed too angry and insane does not mean they were any less muscular.

As the platform began to rise, Kantella waved to her with a gentle smile. And as much as she wanted it to help, the girl only felt worse. Thinking back to the Careers, she thought of the two males. The male from One was rather large, in a way that made him seem as if he was the strongest male in the world. The male from Two not far behind the other. The females were obviously much stronger than her. An that seemed like the only thing she could really differentiate.

She squeezed her eyes shut as soon as she felt the blazing heat of the artificial sunlight of this years arena. Dread began to overwhelm her as she thought about it, the heat of this arena woul eventually just make her overly thirsty. And that may result in there not being water and dehydration. You can last three to four weeks without food but if you don't have water for even three days. You, without a doubt, will die.

Slowly, she opened her eyes and allowed them to try and adjust. She would either end up slipping off of her pedestal or end up running in the completly opposite direction of where she wanted to go. Then she may just not even last another minute in the arena. She shook her head and looked forward to the Cornucopia. Almost everyone else was looking over there, aside from some of the thinner tributes. Who were facing the opposite direction.

Hoping to just take off and stay away from everyone else. Arcia wished that she had the chance to just wait everyone out like others could. But, she couldn't climb trees and there wasn't much of an option to climb trees anyways. There were none

All that was around her was a barren landscape, no trees, no water, no plants, nothing but the metal Conucopia in front of her. So, if people were going to try and make it anywhere, they weren't going to get very far without being seen. You would have to run six miles at least.

But, maybe not.

She swallowed thickly, the dry air already affecting her. She wondered why they had decided on giving the tributes black clothes for such a sunny arena. But, maybe that was what they were trying to get at. Make everyone sunburned and thirsty. Meaning, that the people trying to get away from everyone else would die in the next three days. Without knowing if there had been water in the arena or not. Even if it was placed there by the Capital.

Any water was okay with Arcia at this point, as she thought of the cold glass of milk that had been waiting for her in the diningroom earlier this morning. She shook her head, pushing the thought to the back of her mind. There was no point in even thinking about milk, as she will probably never get the chance to drink it again.

The booming countdown suddenly bursting in her eardrums brought her out of her thoughts of milk and other less important things. She hadn't even been paying attention, she may have still been standing in this spot for several minutes if it weren't for this sudden realization. She coughed and looked around her again, no one else seemed to care about who was around them. Which may have been the best course of action for this years games.

One way or the other, that was the only way anyone could deal with these kind of situations. She took a deep breath and stared straight into the Cornucopia, looking at the deep grey bag, slightly hidden behind a much larger box of equiptment. Probably meant to be hidden specifically for the Careers to find. Rather than anyone else. That only made her think that there may be something particurally useful in it.

Maybe even the smallest bottle of water would matter to anyone at this point. Except for the Careers that would just stay out here and feed off of the supplies. Where there were most likely great big jugs of water deep within the Cornucopia.

Then, there was the sudden boom and she was off of her pedestal and racing to the Cornucopia.

...

Brack watched his tribute intently as she rushed into the Cornucopia and swiped up a bag, right as he blinked. Without a thought towards who might be behind her or throwing something at her. Ignoring the ding of the elevator he watched as she was yanked up by the collar of her shirt by the greatly muscled male from District One. Who was grinning at her wickedly.

He nearly gave up at her in that moment as she let a giant scream rip from her throat, but rather than having a sword shoved through her gut like most would expect. The male tossed her to the ground and covered his ears. So, had a few other tributes nearby. Making Brack realize that they had adjusted the volume on her voice to keep those at home from losing their hearing.

So, in reality. She was screaming so loudly that the other tributes had to stop and try and block out the sound. The thought made Brack want to laugh, but he just couldn't. As he saw her big silvery eyes squeezed shut as she concentrated on deafining everyone in the arena. Holding a tight grip on the pack she wanted so badly and trying to stand up again from where she had been dropped.

He almost wished he could hear the retched sounds of her screams, just to really experience it.

The young girl abruptly stopped, breathing heavily and taking off. Getting as far away from her fellow tributes as possible. And suddenly, Brack believed that Arcia being the cry baby that she is, may just help her. But, she couldn't possibly scream like that if she was in a jam, she may not even be able to use her voice for the next day or two to get it working properly again.

He laughed then, tossing his head back and leeting out the most hearty round of chuckles he could muster. Feeling the weight shift beside him, he just let himself continue laughing. He thought about her tactics as he tried to calm himself down, the laughter not wishing to cease itself.

Though it took more time than he expected, he finally managed to stop and peer back at the screen. Very little actually occuring and very little corpses lying by the Cornucopia. It wasn't very surprising, because no matter how stupid this year's tributes are, as long as they have the speed and the strength, they are unlikely to get killed by the Careers. Though, not many could really go up against them.

They could avoid them. Just as long as they aren't stupid enough to attract enough attention to themselves by going out in front of the Careers, trying to steal supplies, screaming, laughing, starting fires, dying, just the usual. All of the regular everyday things you should avoid when trying to stay away from the Careers!

Obviously.

When Brack finally turned his head to see who had decided to sit down beside him, he saw the great and powerful, Finnick Odair. Who he barely spoke to but the two had their mutual respects for one another. As Finnick wasn't really the unfriendly type. To anyone! And Brack liked people with those qualities. He would like to say that people such as Finnick remind him of himself, but that isn't entirely true. As Finnick is a lot more liked than Brack could ever be.

Not that he cared, Finnick always had the spotlight on himself. And Brack liked being left alone in a quiet enviorment, trying to avoid the masses. Not that Brack Liswich had ever been a very well known or popular Victor. "Hey." he said to the green eyed man beside him. Who was, in truth, only seventeen. And was, and always will be, the most popular Capital whore.

Though, none of the Victor's really thought of him that way. Since most have or do go through with what Finnick does. It's always the people in the Districts that never hear of this stuff. As it isn't supposed to be known to them, ever.

"Hey, my tributes aren't being very interesting and one of them is already gone. So, I think I'm going to chill with you. Never really been on this floor before either..." Finnick trailed off and Brack sighed. Wondering, why, of all of the times that Finnick could pop in, he chooses now! When Brack actually has a tribute to watch over, Finnick drops in to distract him. Though Arcia won't have to hold her own for very long.

She'll eventually start crying and the money will just be thrown at him. As all the young men and women of the Capital think about how sad and scared the cute little girl is. He nearly snorts at the thought, sure. Arcia is plenty cute, but you don't really give a shit about whether she is okay or not, do you? Citizens of the Capital?

"Okay then." Brack states and turns to look at one of the screens, just as the elevator dings again and Brack realizes. Wherever Finnick goes, a few other Victors follow. And that means that Brack really has no chance of paying real attention. Unless these other Victor's actually think she can make it. And are willing to see how things turn out.

...

Arcia panted and sat on the ground, she had been running and slowly going slower and slower over the course of and hour. There was very little sense of where she had been trying to go, and that made her confused. Now, she knew that if she had any reason to go back to the Cornucopia, she would have no way of figuring pout how to get there.

And that kind of sucked.

She had wished she had been paying more attention rather than just running for her life and giving two shits about whether she was going north, east, west, or south. But, as of now, she was just happy that she managed to escape those around her. Though her throat burned from the lack of fluids and from the screaming match she had done against absolutley no one. She felt relieved and a bit happy.

As long as she was away from anyone who wanted to cause immediate harm to her, she felt rather safe. Feeling more comfortable of dying from lack of food and water than by the hands of some stranger.

She whiped the sweat beading on her forehead and began to rifle through the bag she had grabbed, the dark grey fabric was thick and felt like whatever inside would be well protected from the scorching heat. Slipping the zipper down and allowing one hand to dive in, she felt around for anything relatively sharp, and instantly had her finger pricked. Almost amazed by her stupidity she stuck her finger in her mouth and decided to peek inside this time.

What she managed to gather from the bag was a yard's length of rope, a bottle of water about as long as her forearm, three packages of raisans and nuts, sunscreen, and a knife. The knife had a cruel look to it, sharp with a long blade. No wonder it had cut her so easily. A sigh escaped her and she pulled off the black jacket she had been wearing and stuffed it into the bag. Keeping the knife tightly in her palm. Refusing to let it go anytime soon.

She almost refused to look at the water, it would be better if she saved it rather than take a sip as of now. She could last about another hour before needing any of it. Or, it was more her will to preserve it rather than the amount of thirst she was suffering from. She cracked a small smile, she hadn't done too bad in the matter of supplies. She had never had such a great appetite either way.

When she was much younger and her parents had just recently died, Zia hadn't really been able to provide well. Since they had to hide themselves from most of the Peacekeepers until her brother reached the age of eighteen. All that knew of their parents' deaths had kept it a secret, since they knew the conditions of the orphanage in their District. It was true that no matter how wealthy the District was, the orphanages never recieved a lot of money.

So, the children weren't well cared for and most of the people in charge of those places didn't treat the children properly. Most left neglected or abused. Arcia took a deep breath and thought about it. She knew that she would never have to deal with those places, her brother had told her that she would always be safe. That had been one of the three things she had truly been exposed to that her brother always tried to hide from her.

She almost had to stay ignorant for his sake and ignore what she saw and knew was wrong. If she were to see anything, she always remembered that her brother had told her it wasne't her business and that she should just ignore it. And she believed him, that it would be better if she just ignored it and forgot about it.

Closing her eyes, she took a few breaths and pulled out the small momento Kantella had told her she was allowed to keep. The tiny worn piece of leather calmed her down. Running her fingers over it helped her think of happier things. And let her think that the heat she was feeling was the heat that she always felt at home.

Soon, she was lulled into sleep, using her grey bag as a pillow and falling into sleep under the scorching sun.

**...**

**Hey guys! I am back to my old Author's Notes and I would really like it if anyone is willing to leave a Review. Even though I will always keep posting for this story, Reviews are much appreciated.**

**FanFiction is the love of my life. **

**Anyways, I haven't been doing much and I am working really ahrd on the next Chapter to Should I Try? Just in case you were wondering! I hope you were, because I know a couple of people are getting pretty impatient about that stuff. :b**

**I'll see you guys later!**

**Love you!**

**-Meghan**


	7. Chapter 7

When Arcia was jolted awake from her relatively smooth slumber, she was more than shocked to see small white dots floating around in the air. As well as the piles of white surrounding her. She gasped from the sudden chill, goosebumps springing up over her skin.

Sure, she knew what snow was. But, she had never seen it in real life. They had told her about it in history class, when they talked about the other Districts. How most of them recieved snow, except for a lucky few that were warm all year round. Arcia had always wondered what snow looked like, or even felt like.

So, to say that she was surprised by the sudden cold weather was an understatement. Then again, everyone in the arena must have been surprised. To see the once hot and barren landscape now covered in a thick sheet of snow. And not only were they all easy to see, but they would also be easy kills. She gasped and tore open her bag, quickly pulling on her jacket and zipping it up to her chin. Thankfully, her's was particuraly loose on her, making it easier to cuddle into.

Pulling herself up off of the cold ground, she looked around, There wasn't another figure for miles. She was surprised. Wouldn't people have continued to migrate over time? Just to keep moving away from anyone else? But, that would mean that they would be migrating towards her. She had a knife. But, unless they were a distance away, she couldn't do anything to defend herself.

The cold quickly took advantage of her. Having lived in a hot District her entire life, she wasn't used to such cool temperatures. If it had remained hot the entire time, she wouldn't have had as much of a hard time. But, the sudden change was going to really throw her off balance.

At least some of the other tributes would easily adapt to the weather, but she would not. And if the weather was going to change everyday, then she may have an issue.

Rubbing her hands together, she looked around her. She didn't even know which way she came from. If only she had a compass her life would be a bit easier. She had never really used one before, so it might not be as big of a help as one would hope. Shaking her head, she tried to think of which direction she came from.

Some tributes wouldn't die so easily now, snow doubled as water. So no one would be dying of dehydration anytime soon. Arcia sighed, she hadn't even woken up for the anthem, and they would have said who was dead. She was confused now, she had no idea how many people were gone now. Also allowing her to know that there was the possibility that all twenty-three were still around.

The thought made her shiver, she couldn't go up against any of them. She had no chance.

...

Brack was now kind of on edge. He had stayed up all night long with Finnick, Johanna, Beetee, Blight, and Harvey. For some reason, Harvey decided not to put up with Vera for the next week or two. That wouldn't be the best thing for anyone. She could talk a mile a minute and most of the time she was complaining.

Harvey liked to snort and be sarcastic most of the time, which was okay with most of them. Except for Johanna, who just found anyone who thought they were funny, annoying. And honestly, Brack hadn't ever hung out with these Victors before. Only Harvey. Johanna was rather intimidating, whether you were close with her or not. You didn't want to get her angry...

Brack put his head in his hands, this wasn't fun. As Finnick was just about as distracting as flickering light. Which meant that he was annoying and no one wanted to try and do anything about it. Rarely did the cameras go anywhere near Arcia either way, so there wasn't much to pay attention to anyways, but it could happen and he could miss it. There were a lot of possibilities.

"So, what makes you want to help the kid so bad? Huh, Brack?" Johanna asked him in such a way that just made him irritated. He turned and glared at her before responding.

"Haven't you ever felt that you were just supposed to protect something? For some reason, I felt like I had to try and return her to her brother. No matter what it takes, it's the only thing I can do to make sure that I don't hate myself. Leaving her just to fend for herself without guidance or support would always haunt me. So, if she does die. I know that I at least tried."

He ran his fingers through his hair, it was the truth. And, Arcia had started to grow on him anyways. There was no way he could have let her be.

Johanna only snorted and threw her head back to glare up at the cieling. Almost begging it to crash down on top of her.

...

Over the last couple of hours Arcia's jacket hadn't been able to keep n much heat. Her skin was now covered in bumps and the tips of her fingers were numb yet they burned. She took a depp breath and gripped her knife harder.

She felt like her fingers would fall off if she didn't have something to hold onto. She hadn't run into anything, except for a couple of foxes that had strangely colored eyes. They were oddly terrifying, so she rushed away from them as fast as she could. Not wanting to know what the Capital had made them into.

What she had heard from Harvey and Vera in a few of their conversations, mutts that were in the shape of animals. Such as rabbits that looked innocent and sweet, but they would tear your throat out if you were to give them a simple pat.

She sighed and sat down onto the ground. There wasn't much she could do, she had what she needed and there was no real reason to move anymore. It wasn't like she was running from something.

She dug into her bag and pulled out a handful of nuts, and put them back. She wasn't hungry and she wasn't about to waste any of her food. The little that she actually had, was what she had to save.

"Zia, would this be different if Mommy and Daddy were here? Would I not have been picked?" She mumbled and shook her head. This was stupid of her, the whole world could hear her, it was a stupid idea anyways. There was no way her parents could have stopped her from being picked, even if they were alive.

A sudden crunch in the snow hit her ears and she shot up right from the ground, the knife still gripped in her hand. If only it had been a fox behind her, if only.

It was a short wide-eyed girl with hair the color of ginger and pale pale skin. But, the look in her eyes was hateful and filled with fear all at the same time. Arcia instantly knew that even though they were close to the same height, there would be an issue.

The girl seemed to be only sixteen, and Arcia felt like she could definetly kill her if she had to. Zia was all she cared about, she had to get home to him and if this girl was going to keep that from happening. But, she wished Brack had prepared her better for this kind of thing. He never bothered to tell her what it was really like to...hurt people.

But, that didn't really matter to her. She had to do what she had to do. And that was that.

"Y-You're not gonna make it much longer! Just let this be easy for me! Just...just let me do this!" she yelled to Arcia. Arcia suddenly was upset, how could this girl say that she wasn't going to make it? This girl didn't even know her!

The blonde ran forward with a great scream and knocked them both into the cold snow. Without her even having to think, her knife was brought to the girl's throat and almost found home. The girl beneath her brought up her knee and shot straight upwards and managed to slam into her lower stomach.

She gasped for air and tried to fight her way back on top, only failing in the process. But, she knew that this girl was hesitant. Only those who weren't right in the head would be able to just kill someone like Arcia. And this girl seemed terrified of the repercussions. In a way, Arcia could win this fight without doing anything at all.

...

Brack swallowed thickly as Arcia busted into angry sobs. He had instanlty known what she was thinking, and even though it was wrong, it was going to work to her advantage. As the girl from Six froze, Arcia's knife looking small in her hands as she gripped it. He knew that the girl wouldn't be able to stab her.

This situation made him think about whether or not he would care if a girl like Arcia was in his games. He would like to think yes, but when he thought back to his own games, he had killed people with little regret and no fear. Back at that time, he probably would have just shaken his head and killed that little twelve year old. Just a little pesk in his naive brown eyes, thinking that he had to win.

That it was some sort of honour. That he could live in peace with this victory, that he could just return to his home and live with his money and all that he could ever want. But, he was forced into a life of hell, with Snow breathing down his and every other Victor's back. Keeping electronical eyes on them and taking note of any sort of 'odd' move.

Arcia's sobbing continued and became louder and stronger as seconds passed, as the girl atop her began to break into her own set of tears and drop Arcia's knife. The thing dropped into the frigid snow as she backed up and away from little silver-eyed Arcia. She screamed up into the sky, apoligies to her parents and to who know who.

All of the younger girl's tears seized and she threw herself to her knife, and throwing it anywhere towards the other girl's form. Allowing it to dive straight into the warm flesh of her calf. The ginger haired girl toppled down onto her stomach with a cry of pain. Arcia dashed forward and tore the blade from her leg and took a handful of the other girl's hair. Yanking her head back so she could look at her throat, heaving with sobs and terrified breaths.

She took the bloody knife and slit her throat. As quick and easy as she had expected.

...

Arcia gasped for breath as the canon boomed and she dropped her knife to the ground. She had expected to feel a sense of relief, but all she felt was a deep regret. She had completly toyed with this girl, used her humanity and feelings to kill her. To use them against her and to win.

She rolled the body over and stared at the girl's face, wide empty eyes, her throat still dripping with fresh blood, making her already pale skin look paler in contrast. She shook her head and pressed her hand to her throat. Whiping away the excess blood and ignoring the feeling of her torn flesh. She whiped her heand into the snow and continued the process until all you could see was the dealt slice.

She sighed and pressed her lips to her forehead. Pulling her face away she mumbled a few words that she hoped only she could hear, "Thank you for caring about me. If it hadn't been for your humanity, I would be dead. I'm sorry for what I've done. I only ask for you and your family's forgiveness."

She stood up and took her knife. Wiping it onto her dirty pants and walking away, she really did hope her family didn't hate her. She hadn't meant to do it, she felt wrong and dirty now. She felt like she hadn't really been in control of her actions. For some reason, if the tables were turned and she had been the one left to be taken by the hovercraft, she would want Zia to forgive the girl.

As they had both been trying to survive and they had both been trying to get home to their family. She was only a small obstacle for them to push past.

**...**

**YES!**

**UPDATE TIME EVERYONE!**

**Haha! Yeah, I feel pretty happy about this Chapter and I know that all of my other followers are just really pissed at me for not updating the others, but I usually get more inspiration for Arcia than the others. **

**IT'S NOT PERSONAL!**

**Okay, I am going to go start working on the other Chapters of other stories to get some praise!**

**Hope you're happy!**

**-Meghan**


	8. Chapter 8

Arcia had been wandering around the arena for the past four days. She at least thought that it had been four days, she honestly had no clue about this kind of thing. She wasn't good with time and place, or just time in general. Since her first...kill. She had killed three others. One had been a male about three years older than her. He was cocky.

She hadn't been caught by him, she had been camping out in the northern area. She'd set traps up around her to keep anyone from getting to her and causing immediate damage. On her way to that area, she had kill a fourteen year old girl that looked so hungry. She had tried to attack her when she was eating the nuts from her bag, but Arcia had to do what had to be done.

Her death was a bit less violent, she had slit her throat once she had a good enough grip on the girl. But, the male had been more of an issue, even after he stumbled into her trap. It was strange that before he wandered over to it, she had been thinking about how obvious it was, but apparently he hadn't been as bright as she intially thought.

Whilst he was trying to cut away the ropes, she hurried over and kicked him in the throat. She wished that she didn't have to do that part, but she had no real choice if she wanted it to be quick for him. He had glared up at her and gasped for breath. But, he was more fearful than angry, at least from her vantage point. She tore his hands from his throat and shoved her knife straight through his jugular.

She couldn't stand herself.

As soon as the male was dead she left, taking all of her supplies with her. He had been her most recent kill. And as she had expected, the days were shifting drastically in temperature. Today it was a drizzle, which doesn't sound too bad, except that the dead brown grass was soaked with the percipitation. She couldn't run if she wanted to make a quick escape, and what was also terrible was that it wasn't a normal drizzle. The water falling from the sky was like bullets of ice that made her feel completly numb.

Her jacket was slightly damp, the fabric not as strong as it semmed to be. It wasn't very resistent to the frigid water, and on the days when the dry hot air burned her skin. It was as if the fabric was wearing away all that it needed to protect her from anything.

...

Brack sipped his coffee as he watched the screen, he could only imagine how freezing Arcia could be. The only time he had ever really felt the cold was during his Victory Tour, when it was winter in the other Districts. Ones that actually had a drastic change in seasonal weather, Ten was always sunny and dry. They used to recieve occasional rain, but not that much anymore.

They were barely able to keep the grass for the livestock fresh, because the animals would only eat fresh grass, fresh water, and it was necessary either way. If the creatures weren't top notch someone would recieve a Capital punishment. Maybe even fifty percent of the workers would get a high class whipping.

He shook his head and Finnick walked up to him, his hair messy and a tired grin on his mischevious face. "Good Morning..." Brack looked to the clock and replied, "It's two o'clock in the afternoon."

Finnick forwned for a moment and went back into the livingroom, throwing himself onto the couch and closing his eyes. Quickly falling asleep a few moments later on. He and Finnick could be considered friends if you really thought about it. They had been up for about fourty-eight hours straight in the beginning and then they were taking six hour long turns of sleep while the other stared at the screen.

They had a partnership if you prefer. Brack scoffed and landed on the armchair, he and Finnick Odair. Partners. Of all things he could imagine himself being, this was the most abnormal one.

...

Arcia chewed at the tops of her finger, she had lost feeling in them and she could barely feel her own teeth gnashing at her flesh. She could taste her own blood in her mouth but couldn't feel it dripping down her finger. She pulled back and looked at it, the skin was torn up and she would have scars. She hadn't realized how hard she had been biting.

Lifting her eyes she looked around her, no one. Not one person for miles, at least that's always how it seemed. She had been wrong several times when she believed no one was around. But, she had no real choice in how her brain thought. Maybe it was just the hope that no one was around, not that the statment was true or not.

"I'm okay, it'll be warm tomorrow." she mumbled to herself and put her head between her knees. Taking short shallow breaths.

...

Zia could hardly think as he stared at the one photo of he and his parents. Arcia was only two at the time and he was ten. He held her in his arms, she must have been the tiniest baby he had ever seen. He remembered all of the times his parents worried about her health, that she was too small or something like that. The healer of their District had said that anyways, an old man with cracked glass and a crooked nose.

He had always tried to hide his little sister when he came over to examine her, to see if she was gaining the proper amount of weight. That she would live without the things she was missing.

He looked at the other picture, it was of Marsh, Arcia, and he. The day of his wedding, they had gotten a camera just for that day. No one really understood how to use it, but they figured it out eventually. Arcia was on the groud at their feet, her eyes excited and warm. But, she looked so lonely. He hadn't realized how lonely he was making her feel until she left.

Marsh stared at the screen in their house, watching his little sister mumble and shake while trapped in a fetile position. He took a deep breath, his sister was turning so...savage. He could barely believe it was his little sister that manipulated the elder girl into taking pity on her. His littler sister taht drive a knife through another person's throat.

His Arcia hated to kill spiders that wandered into the house, but she was masacering other people's children. No, he thought. It's not her fault, there's something wrong with her, he assured himself. His Arcia needed to be home again, she would be all better if she returned home to him.

A gasp escaped him as his little sister was suddenly kicked in the side, another tribute had snuck up to her with obvious intent to kill. But, due to the fact that she was in a fetile position, she wasn't hurt too badly. It surprised him that she was able to withstand such a hit. He clenched his fists as she sprund up and tore her knife from her pants pocket, tearing a hole in them, but she didn't seem to care as she gripping it tightly and lashed out at the elder girl.

The girl glared at her and backed up, all this girl had was her fists, but that could work in her favorite. Arcia screamed and lashed out again, her eyes angry and dangerous. She wanted blood, that much was obvious even to him.

Arcia rushed forward and slammed the knife into the other girl's stomach, slipping on the grass in the process. Causing the kinfe to drag straight down and tear a gaping hole from the top of the girls stomach to her navel. Zia gagged as blood literally pured from the girl's stomach. Arcia wasn't done yet though, she kicked the girl down and panted. Using her knife to do what she had done to all of her kills. Slit their throat.

The cannon boomed and his little sister gasped for air. Looking down at the corpse, she swallowed thickly and he watched as she took off her jacket and shirt, using the shirt to wipe the blood off of the girl's stomach, only after lifting her shirt up to reveal the wound. Zia could see the flap of torn flesh barely clinging onto the elder girl's navel.

His sister took a deep breath and pressed her shirt onto the bleeding wound. Cleaning up all that she could of the girl's body before taking her shirt back and using her water bottle and pouring a little bit onto it, then whiping it against her damp pants. Leaving a giant streak of blood.

Arcia's face was calm and blank as she pulled her bloody and ruined shirt back over her head and stuffing her jacket into her bag.

He didn't notice until the camera switched to the Careers that his wife was sobbing. He ran to her side and put a hand on her back, running his hand up and down in a soothing gesture. He was shocked as well by what he had seen. His little Arcia has offically killed five people. He thought about who was left.

No, he couldn't. It made him sick to his stomach to think of all of the dead children in this year's games. "Zia," his wife mumbled. He looked at her, her stomach had barely begun to swell since Arcia left. He wished that he could think about something more positive, like whether or not his first child would be a girl or a boy, what he should name it. What it would look like. But, no.

He was thinking about how many people his little has killed in cold blood. All because of him, he shook his head. It was not his fault at all. He believed. He had nothing to do with his sister's new found insanity, this was her choice.

"Yes?" he responded.

"If Arcia...if she comes back. I don't, I don't think she could be near us anymore." Zia swallowed thickly. If Arcia did return, he would love to hug and kiss his little sister, devour her with the sweetest of kisses and hide her from the rest of the world. But...his wife had some kind of point to her words. Who knew what Arcia would be like when she came home? How would she act after all of this?

Would she be the same?

"She, if she isn't how she was before. Who knows if she could hurt us? Our child? It terrifies me! I helped raise that little girl! I brushed her hair and read her stories, I tucked her into bed and kissed her better when she was hurt! That! That...it's not her. That person that we are watching is not the girl I raised. She isn't the one you knew your whole life either. I can barely understand how they could even look the same! She's a monster Zia!" she screamed. Tears rushing down her cheeks.

He understood where she was coming from. His Arcia was different, but he saw her afterwards, when she was alone in the middle of that godforsaken arena. When she cried her eyes out and begged to go home. That was his Arcia, but there had to be a breaking point. There had to be. When she finally couldn't handle it anymore. All of the pain she caused others and seeing the blood on her hands.

But, would kicking her to the curb be any better? He wondered. Even though he wished to avoid this situation he had no real choice. If he wanted to get anywhere at all in the future, he would have to make this decision. He put his head in his hands.

Why her?

...

Arcia barely understood what was going on around her. She wasn't completly concious, or maybe she was. It was hard to tell where she was, all she would feel was the frigid cold or the blazing heat as the world around her shifted and twisted.

She would feel the warmth of blood on her hands, she would hear the sound of her knife, feeling it slide into soft flesh. Her mind was almost completly off, and she found it harder and harder to think the longer she stayed awake.

...

Brack had watched his tribute walk around for that entire week, she tore through any tribute that she came across now. As if they weren't even there to begin with, he knew she was somewhere else. Her mind off to a different place as her body did what Arcia was expecting.

There were only eight tributes left, Arcia had killed five while she was actually...trying. But, while she was off in her own little world, she had slaughtered six others. He truly wondered how she managed it. In the past week she had killed more than a Career could ever hope to.

The brown-eyed man had spent very little of his time in the Capital square, where many Capitalites were watching his tribute on the largest screen the world had ever known. All of them, laughing, cheering, grinning, all while Arcia killed other peoples' children. He couldn't have stayed there longer even if he wanted to.

...

When Arcia was jolted from her mindless state, it was a rather rude awakening, she looked at herself. Her shirt torn up, nearly to shreds, showing her the blood undershirt beneath. Her jacket was still in her bag, as if she hadn't taken it out since she last stuffed it inside. Beneath her finger-nails were great globs or dried blood.

Her pants were in better shape than her shirt, but just barely. She put her head in her hands, how could this have happened? She wondered, how could her mind just shut down like that?

Suddenly, her nerves spiked as the sound of sandstone crunching beneath another person's boot. Her attention was instantly brought a girl, eighteen, but she was obviously thin and had a very graceful bone structure. But, she looked determing as she held something in her hands, something that dripped a bright purple between her knuckles.

The girl's whispy black hair was damp with sweat, as if she wasn't used to such hot weather, though that was no excuse to be so sweaty. Arcia gripped her knife, surprised by how instantaneous the action was. How automactic it had become. She hadn't even thought about it, and there it was, as bloody and jagged as ever.

The girl was on top of her before she could bring herself to swing. It was no use though, her own knife was torn from her grip and the girl was holding her down. Her knee pressing right into her stomach, making her ability to breathe highly limited. Gasping to catch her breath, she tried to think on what the girl was going to do. But, it was pretty obvious what her intent was when she pressed her knee harder into the girl's stomach.

Her mouth shot open and the purple berries gripped in the girls hand were held over her open mouth. Arcia understood, it was supposed to poison her, but she knew better. There was no way she was going to just let this happen, she had free reign of her arms. But, there was little she could do, no matter how hard she had slammed her fist into that punching bag in the training center, she could never throw a proper punch.

So, she did all she could think of, throwing her head to the left, but all she could do was stare in shock as the berries' esence dripped from the girl's fingers, into her silver eye.

...

Brack gripped the arm of his chair and Finnick as well as a few others gasped as Arcia screamed bloody murder. The pousin from the berries invading her eye ball, causing searing pain. Brack had dealt with them before in his own games, nearly eating them before his ally warned him that they would cause a very violent death.

First, blood. You would vomit for hours on end. The contents of your stomach emptying itself until it was nothing but blood. You would begin to choke, a burning pain in your lower stomach and your head pounding.

It wouldn't kill you immediatly, as it was your body that constantly hacked up all the blood clogging your throat. And then it you would slowly bleed to death. It wasn't fun. It wasn't one of those berries that would kill you in a second, these berries were created for a painful death. It wasn't unusual that the Capital would go to such lengths such as that type of death to entertain the people.

As Arcia screamed the girl above her was forced to back up, the younger girl's sudden scream shocking her and making her nerves shoot through the roof. Brack had seen the girl stalking her for the past few days, watching her and waiting. Seeing her tear apart her victims.

The blonde opened her right eye and the other was clenched shut tightly with unbelievable concentration and strength. It looked painful to even close her eyeball that tight, he took a deep breath as she pushed herself up onto her feet. And the other girl could only watch her in shock, frozen in terror as the blonde lifted her knife from the ground and began to limp towards the other girl.

Her vision barely allowing her to see where she had to run, who she had to kill, where she had to put her knife.

Brack forced his eyes to stay on the screen as Arcia caught the elder's body movement, as she tried to run away. Though he could tell she was really struggling, she threw her knife straight ahead. Allowing the blade to hit home, sliding through the back of the other girl's neck and sticking out the other end.

...

Arcia took deep breaths as she held a hand over her eye, she was having the most difficult time trying to keep herself from crying. Due to the fact that whenever a tear managed to escape, she would scream as it burned her eye. The salt-water drops were really irritating her, though she had no real clue why.

Her eye wasn't cut, unless the juices had already managed to get inside of her. Though she doubted that was the case. Even the Capital couldn't have that free pass. Especially when there was something like the games occuring. They could control the weather, the animals, but they could not control her actions. That was what she knew.

She pressed the sleeve of her jacket her eye and quickly pulled back, even though she doubted it, she didn't want the juices to burn a hole in her only protection from the cold. An getting frostbite wasn't on her list of things she wanted to do.

Her other eye roved across the plains of dry land, trying to see if there was anyone else around that she may have to deal with. Suddenly, her one eye widened as she watched a small silver package slowly float down into her lap. She smiled brightly and pulled it open, praying for bandages.

**...**

**Hey guys! This was a longer Chapter than what you're used to, and I thank all of you who have been following this story. I'm surprised it has gotten any response at all. Though my one review is pointing out that I reposted a Chapter! XD**

**It's pretty laughable actually. But, it won't happen again, I'll keep a better eye out for what I'm clicking. Just let me know what's up if you see something.**

**And I know that Kantella had a different name before, but the name I am using now is the one I used when I first began to think about this story. **

**And I think some people may be confused on Zia and Kantella's names, I know that a few people have asked me about it in real life before. So I'll clear things up.**

**Zia- Sigh-aH**

**Kantella- The 't' in her name is silent. **

**Love you!**

**-Meghan**


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